In this ad, United claims to have the "Best Frequent Flyer Program" for the past 8 years. This is based upon a survey of readers of the Global Traveler magazine.
This made me think. Does United have the best frequent flyer program? I have only been a member of MileagePlus, United's frequent flyer program, for the past few years. However, I don't see what makes it better than other programs. For a person without status, what the diffidence between one airline's frequent flyer program and another. Typically, a flyer normally earns 1 frequent flyer mile for each mile flown. Yes, some airlines like Delta give you less based upon the type of ticket you buy and Southwest determines it by the cost of ticket and type of ticket. Am I over thinking this?
In regards to people with status, I hear many complaints, on other blogs, about United removing the benefits to people with status. So, what makes United the Best Frequent Flyer Program? And for eight straight? Wouldn't after losing to United for eight years other airlines make changes to their program to at least compete with United. Something smells fishy about this claim. Is my gut feeling wrong? Do you think United has the best program?
On the ad, their was also the claim "we're ranked #1 in award seat availability among U.S. Global carriers." This was based upon a survey taken of saver-style award available for June-October 2012. They define US Global carriers as United, American Airlines, Us Airways and Delta. I also saw this claim on hundreds of signs at Dulles (IAD), during a recent trip:
What the advertisements don't say is how the survey was conducted. What award tickets were they trying to purchase? From the pictures in the advertisements, it looks like international destinations (from the pictures I see Paris and Holland). Looking at the survey conducted by Ideaworks, the survey was conducted with specific outbound and return flights dates. However, to get the best tickets, savey flyers know that flexibility is key to get the best seats for fee. Here is a link to the press release with the results. Specifically here is their methodology:
"Notes regarding reward query methodology: Booking queries for a party of two
travelers were made at frequent flier program websites during March 2012. Some
airlines require a Saturday night stay for reward travel; all of the queries used date
pairings that included a Saturday night stay. While the city pairs varied for each
frequent flier program, the travel dates queried did not. 280 specific dates were
selected for survey queries and only reward seat availability for travel on the date
specified was recorded; any departure time was acceptable. Furthermore, reward
travel had to be available on the outbound and return dates queried. Overly circuitous
routings and layovers longer than 4 hours were not accepted. The top 10 routes
longer than 2,500 miles and the top 10 shorter routes were selected for each airline.
Due to a lack of long-haul routes, the top 20 overall routes were queried for these
airlines: AirTran, GOL, JetBlue, Southwest, and Virgin Australia. Two
mainland – Hawaii city pairs (out of 20) were substituted for Alaska Airlines to reflect
the carrier’s increasing emphasis on longer-haul flights. Ten top Europe - Palma de
Mallorca city pairs (out of 20) were substituted for Air Berlin to reflect the carrier’s
major Mediterranean emphasis on holiday flights. When offered, online reward
availability for partner airlines was always requested; rewards fulfilled by calling the
airline were not."
What I found most interesting about this survey is where the US Carriers are ranked compared to international based carriers. Out of 23 carriers, Southwest ranks tied for first (1st), Airtran and United tied for seventh (7th), Jetblue at ninth (9th), Alaskan at sixteenth (16th), American at nineteenth (19th), US Airways at twenty-first (21st) and Delta last at twenty-third (23).
So, in reality, Southwest/Airtran (they are in the middle of a merger) is the best US Based carrier. United used some very very very tricky wording to say it has the "#1 in award seat availability among US global carriers," since it limited it to US Airways, Delta and American. One can assume out of this survey that if one is looking for domestic tickets, one should focus your attention on Southwest. However, if one is looking for international award tickets - United is the place to look.
I would agree to some degree. I have a lot of luck with US Airways with domestic tickets; however, their requirement to purchase a roundtrip ticket is antiquated; especially since they allow you to pick two one way tickets for cash purchases. For international trips, United is a member of the Star Alliance, which opens up many different award ticket possibilities In addition, United's trip routing and ticketing rules for award tickets are amazing as well. For example, I would not be going to Tokyo if it not for United's allowing one way ticketing.
The moral of this post. Don't believe everything you read, because with the right data any airline can be number 1 in any category.
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